(Clarifying the full name of the company.)

Foresight Environmental Infrastructure Ltd on Thursday said its net asset value fell in the first half of its current financial year, hurt by impairments from investee HH2E AG entering administration.

The Guernsey-registered company, formerly known as JLEN Environmental Assets Group Ltd, is an environmental infrastructure investment fund with a portfolio of assets located across the UK and Europe.

Its net asset value on September 30 was 109.8 pence per share, down 3.3% from 113.6p on March 31. NAV total return was 0.04%, compared to negative 1.6% on March 31.

Foresight Environmental Infrastructure had invested a total of 2.6% of its net asset value in German green hydrogen partner HH2E, which entered administration after failing to secure further third-party funding in early November. As a result, the firm’s half-year results were hurt by an impairment of 2.9p per share.

Before adjusting for the impact of the HH2E write-down, the company’s NAV total return was 2.6%.

The company swung to a pretax loss of £537,000 during the six months that ended September 30, from a profit of £1.9 million the year before.

Its gain on the fair value of its investments reduced 39% to £4.2 million from £6.9 million, while operating expenses decreased 4.0% to £4.8 million from £5.0 million.

Foresight Environmental Infrastructure declared an interim dividend of 3.90p per share, up 3.2% from 3.78p last year. The firm is targeting a total dividend of 7.80p for financial 2025, which would be up 3.0% from 7.57p the year before.

Chair Ed Warner said: ‘Foresight Environmental Infrastructure’s half-year results reflect both progress and challenges. While the full write-down of our investment in HH2E impacted overall performance, outside of this our diversified portfolio of sustainable infrastructure assets performed well, delivering record cash distributions and solid dividend cover.

‘During the period, we were pleased to achieve the sale of a majority stake in six anaerobic digestion facilities, to launch our first share buyback programme, and to receive shareholder endorsement of a name change to Foresight Environmental Infrastructure Ltd. Additionally, early reductions in UK interest rates provide cautious optimism for a more favourable macroeconomic outlook.

‘We remain committed to disciplined capital allocation in the near term, progressing our construction stage assets and delivering other value enhancements across the portfolio. Longer term we are well positioned to take advantage of the significant investment opportunity presented by the commitment to decarbonisation and sustainable development when the wider environment supports it.’

Shares in Foresight Environmental Infrastructure were down 1.9% at 76.20 pence each in London on Friday afternoon.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.